Paul Bianchi Ends Day 1a with Commanding Chiplead; Luce & Crain On with Big Stacks

Day 1a of the WSOPC Hammond Main Event saw 912 entrants pony up the $1,600 entrance fee, but only 184 would survive the day. The Day 1a field eclipsed the 872 entrants that entered the 2010 event and there is still Day 1b to account for. Paul Bianchi ended the day as your chipleader with 358,500 after making a charge late in the evening.

Joining him atop the counts are Tom Luce with 263,500, Eric Crain and Bryan Dillon each with 251,500.

Notables Chad Brown (87,000), Dwyte Pilgrim (137,000), Josh Brikis (147,500), Mohsin Charania (51,800) and Kenny Nguyen (125,000) still remain in the field.

Notables that did not survive the day were Kathy Liebert, Steve Brecher, Allen Kessler, 2010 WSOP Hammond Main Event winner Kurt Jewell, Faraz Jaka, Kevin Saul, Aaron Massey, Mark “Pegasus” Smith and Mark “P0kerH0” Kroon.

With only 20 minutes remaining in the day, a hand unfolded that all the players at the table agreed might be the sickest hand they’ve seen. Pavlin Karakikov opened from early position and thought everyone folded and exposed pocket jacks to the table; however, Voytek Glab was in the big blind and made the call. The flop came {K-Hearts} {Q-Diamonds} {4-Hearts} and Glab bet 6,000. Karakikov called and the turn came {A-Spades} . Glab then moved all in for 44,600. Facing three over cards to his jacks and an all in, Karakikov tanked, eventually making the call. Glab tabled pocket fives and was dead to rights from Karakikov’s hero call, but the river was a cruel {5-Hearts} sending the pot to Glab. To make matters worse, Karakikov was given an orbit penalty for exposing his hand.

The early part of the day saw Nguyen soar to the chiplead, at one point having 130,000 – a full 80,000 more than the next closest stack. But Nguyen’s wild style caught up with him and was on an average stack shortly after dinner.

We expected to see Dennis Phillips in the field after winning his first WSOPC ring last night, but he fell ill. Phillips’ appendix burst late last night shortly after winning and was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. We have been told he is stable and is expected to make a full recovery.

Any player that busted during Day 1a is allowed to re-enter on Day 1b. We expect to see many of the notables that busted today with a fresh chipstack at the start of play tomorrow. Both fields will combine on Sunday at 2 p.m. CST for Day 2 with the goal of playing down to a final table.

You can follow all the Day 1b action live on Pokernews.com when the cards hit the air at 12:00 noon CST, about 10 hours from right now.